Paths That Cross
by Nemisor
Summary: She sees the path laid ahead of him; a path of darkness and magic. It's the same she's walking upon. Pegasus-Ishizu friendship.


_A/N: Hey, hey, I don't have much anything to say about this one, except this is more platonic than my past two fics and the title is from a Patti Smith song, cos I adore Patti Smith. A lot of the same themes than my citronshipping fic in this one... I have a thing for destinies. Hope you enjoy!  
_

* * *

 **Paths That Cross**

 _The pale man has hair of purest silver. He walks the desert, but doesn't belong in it. The most striking thing about him is that he has only one eye. The other eye socket is empty, filled with darkness and magic. It pours out, laying a path out for him._

The vision passed, as quickly as it had came. Ishizu Ishtar blinked, trying to focus her gaze back to the here and now. She was in her office, a small room at the Supreme Council of Antiquities headquarters, at Cairo. She had just been reviewing paperwork that had been coming from the newly found temple at Southern Egypt, when the vision had taken her.

Visions such as these were an everyday occurrence to Ishizu, since she was the guardian and the possessor of the Millennium Necklace. The power within the necklace was a great one, for it could show both past and the future.

Her hand touched upon the cold surface of the necklace, laying heavily against her collarbone.

The visions were important, but sometimes they were too short or otherwise unclear, and no meaning could be seen. This vision had been like that. The man in it could be an ally or he could be an enemy, and the empty eye could be a metaphor or something literal. The moment, which the vision showed, might have already passed, or be coming in months or years.

There was nothing for Ishizu to do but to wait, either for more visions, so she could learn more or for the man to come to her. Either was sure to happen.

She returned to the papers upon her desk.

* * *

She didn't forget about the vision, merely stored it in the back of her mind for later. It laid there, unused, for months, among other visions she couldn't place into the bigger picture. Then she heard word rippling through the Council building, an excited rumor that Pegasus J. Crawford, an artist and a millionaire, from USA would be financing a large-scale expedition to Egypt. That he would be coming to Egypt himself to see to it. It was his wish to dig near the Valley of the Kings, in a place where a rumor told of a hidden tomb. No one had gone to investigate, because digging without a clear spot was just like trying to capture smoke with bare hands. But apparently this Pegasus had money to spare on hearsay.

Ishizu followed the preparations to the expedition with interest, as she was hopeful that it would be a successful one. Her interest only grew when she saw a picture of Pegasus, a young man with hair of silver, and knew that this was the man from her vision. That somehow Pegasus J. Crawford was important. And perhaps the things he was hoping to find were important too.

Pegasus came to visit Cairo, before leaving for Thebes. Few members of the Council would be coming with him, to make sure that everything was done legally and to the best of archaeological standards, and that nothing that was found would leave the country. The Egyptian government had had quite enough of that. Ishizu had placed herself into the pool of hopefuls who would be taken with the expedition, but had not lucked out. It was not destined to be.

Still, she and the rest of the office were gathered in the great hall, waiting to catch a glimpse of this mysterious new archaeology enthusiast. First person to come into the room was a man named Omar, one of the four people the Council would be sending to the Valley. He was practically walking backwards, as he was animatedly explaining something to the person following him. The man that walked into the room, after Omar, had both eyes. They were brown and they gazed upon the assembled people under silvery bangs of hair.

"This would be the financier of our expedition," Omar said, finally turning to his colleagues. "Pegasus Crawford from America."

"Greetings all," Pegasus said. "I look forward to working with you all, and hopefully we'll strike upon something historically significant."

Ishizu didn't hear the rest of the speech, since as soon as her eyes fell upon the man's face, another vision took her over.

 _He is a_ _young teen, dancing with a girl his age. The girl has golden locks, flowing down her back. He only has eyes for her, and she for him. He is happy. They dance, and the music plays and the night carries on. There is no one else in the world, but them._

 _The music fades, the dancers disappear. He is older now, by few years. Holding a bouquet of flowers, as her coffin is lowered to the ground. Flowers fall from the hands that are shaking from the tears._

She blinked, and she was back. Pegasus had turned to talk to the Secretary General, and most people had wandered off, or were talking to the other people of Pegasus' group, most old friends.

She stood in the place she had been in and stared at Pegasus. She saw now the sadness behind the polite smile. It was etched into his features, into the corners of his mouth and it was a dull muteness behind the glint in his eyes, both true and both very much part of him. This was a man who had lost plenty in the past. But the vision of Pegasus' future showed something else. There was something to gain. Even if it might be something terrible and fearful. Pegasus was stepping into something he wasn't expecting. Maybe a great danger, maybe not.

Ishizu never got a chance to speak with Pegasus in private. She did not know what she would have said anyway. Trying to explain to him that she saw a vision of the future that might have meant that he was in danger, did not sound like the brightest idea.

She couldn't have changed the future shown anyway. It would happen, at some point. She was patient, knowing that the items would bring him back to her.

* * *

Few weeks later, she heard that some of the expedition was taking a break, and returning to Cairo. This included Pegasus J. Crawford. They had not found anything substantial yet, but few clues that there was indeed something buried under the sand. And they would continue digging.

Omar was one of the people that came back, to report to the Secretary General in person. It was Omar who knocked on Ishizu's door that afternoon.

"Come in, please," Ishizu said, not raising his gaze from the paper she was reading. She'd recognize Omar's knocking anywhere.

"Ishizu, hello," he said as a greeting, before sitting down.

"How's Thebes?" she asked.

"Same as always," he answered with a shrug. "A lot of sand. The dig's going great, and I would love to talk about it with you, but I came here to ask for a favor."

Ishizu raised her eyebrows in surprise and finally set down her papers to turn her complete focus on him.

"What can I do for you?" She asked.

"I think you should meet with Mister Crawford."

"Has something happened?"

"You could say so."

Ishizu did notice that at some point during the conversation, Omar's gaze had dropped upon the necklace around her neck. Few people in the Council of Antiquities knew the legends of the Millennium Items, but none had dared to ask if the thing around Ishizu's neck was a fake or the real thing. It certainly had had an effect on how quickly Ishizu had been raising in the ranks inside the Council.

"Ask him in, I've nothing more important," Ishizu said. Omar nodded and disappeared from the room.

Pegasus came in alone, and closed the door behind him. He looked no different than he had been few weeks ago, only more tanned. She motioned him to sit down.

"Mister Crawford," Ishizu said. "I am Ishizu Ishtar, and I've been told I could perhaps help you with something."

Pegasus nodded, and his eyes too caught Ishizu's necklace. He stared at it with open amazement.

"Miss Ishtar, when Omar told me that you may be able to help me, I was doubtful, but now I see that you just might be the person I'm looking for."

"You are referring to my necklace?" Ishizu asked, her fingers finding its surface, and for a moment covering the eye in the middle. She was starting to understand.

Pegasus smiled and nodded. Then he tilted his head in such a manner that his hair, which had been covering his left eye, fell aside.

Ishizu knew what would wait for her below the hair, so her face showed no change upon the reveal.

Instead of the left eye, there was a golden object lodged inside Pegasus' eye socket. A thing of darkness and magic.

"You don't seem surprised," Pegasus said.

"I am not," Ishizu answered. "I saw that the Millennium Eye would choose you months ago."

"Saw?"

"The Millennium Necklace, which I wield, can see the future and the past. All of the Millennium Items have special powers."

"I can... read minds. The thoughts that are on the surface."

Ishizu nodded.

"You must learn to control it," she said. "The Items are ancient; both powerful and dangerous. And the Eye has chosen you. That means your future is tied to the other items as well as their wielders."

"Who are the other wielders? Besides you, of course."

"If you tell me how you came across the Eye, I will share what I know of the Items."

"It's a deal," Pegasus said brightly. "This looks like a beginning of an interesting partnership."

They talked. There were questions Ishizu could not answer, as she didn't know everything herself, but there were yet others she could answer, and Pegasus seemed very grateful for every piece of information Ishizu could part with. She kept some things to herself, mostly relating to her family. If Pegasus picked them up from her mind, he didn't say.

It was late night, when they parted. Pegasus thanked her profusely, promising to keep in contact if he would come across anything that would be of use to her.

* * *

Pegasus returned to his diggings, and soon came upon something rather interesting, a stone tablet that would be talked for ages among the archaeological community. He returned to home, and inspired by what he had found, he began working.

Ishizu was soon buried in work herself, trying to catalogue and decipher everything that Pegasus' team had found.

They stayed in touch, occasionally sending an email to each other or making a quick phonecall. Ishizu sent him the papers she had written about the stone tablet and he sent her pictures that he had drawn; the creatures on the tablet returned to vivid colors, looking almost alive on the paper they were captured in.

Years passed. Ishizu rose to be the Secretary General in the Council of Antiquities. Pegasus published a card game based on the designs on the tablet, and was rocketed into wealth and success.

There were no more visions about Pegasus, but somehow Ishizu knew this had been something that had been meant to happen. That just like the Eye, Pegasus had meant to find the stone, and turn it into a game. What it all meant, Ishizu couldn't guess.

* * *

They met up again. Pegasus did still arrange expeditions almost constantly, but very rarely he came with them in person. Ishizu had heard that another stone tablet had been found, and that Pegasus had been present. He surely would have visited Ishizu in Cairo, but Ishizu had been out of the country at the time. She had been on a visit to Great Britain, to argue once again about how the items in their museums belonged to the Egypt. When she finally came back, he had already left back to America, having only left a full report and some pictures for Ishizu to look over.

Not soon after, Pegasus called for her one night, his voice shaking and barely contained with terror. He had seen things, he said, things he couldn't understand. He refused to tell more, lest not in person, and told that he would be taking the next flight to Egypt.

It didn't take a Millennium Eye to see the horrible guilt burning up Pegasus' face, as Ishizu finally saw him stepping off a private plane at the airport.

He said nothing to her, no greeting. His first words were:

"Is there a place where we can speak in private?"

She took him to her office at the Council's building. Her new room seemed smaller than it actually was, because its walls were covered in bookshelves stuffed with books and her desk was stacked with papers. She sat him down on one of the softer chairs in the corner instead of a wooden chair in front of her desk. This was a meeting between friends, not official business. Pegasus smiled at her, when she offered the chair, perhaps having picked the thought from her mind.

Pegasus' hands shook as he sipped on the tea Ishizu had offered. She waited for him to speak. He didn't. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope which he handed to her.

From it, she pulled out three cards. And her heart jumped to her throat as she looked at the figures painted on them. A series of visions flashed in her mind, brought by the Necklace; a man, dead, slumped on a desk; Pegasus painting in his house with a feverish glint in his eyes; a hand holding the cards and thunder striking down upon them; an ancient city in flames.

"Gods," she hissed in between her teeth. For that they were, the same ancient gods that had been carved upon the stone tablet Pegasus had found, now trapped inside the cards instead of stone. Looking almost alive. Looking angry. Looking like they could break free at any moment.

"I shouldn't have," Pegasus said. "They are too powerful, they are too dangerous. They've already claimed lives. I can't let them out to the public."

"What do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Take them. Hide them. Bury them. No one should know where they are. No one should even know that they have ever existed."

She nodded.

"I'll make arrangements," she said, getting up. "I'll bring only people I personally trust. Do you wish to accompany me?"

Pegasus shook his head.

"I think it's better even I don't know where they are. That kind of power is not mine to wield. I trust you."

She got up, and made her way to her desk. She placed the cards there, and turned to unhook the phone.

She called people, while Pegasus reclined in the chair, sipping on his tea. It would take a while to arrange such a trip, and to set up places where the cards could be hidden, but she knew there was only one place where the god cards could rest, and she knew her colleagues would understand the severity of the situation. So once she was done with the phone call, first of many no doubt, she gave a curt nod to Pegasus and said:

"Give me a week and it'll be done."

"Thank you Ishizu," he said. "I'll stay until you come back."

He handed her a business card with the hotel's name and they parted, a clear weight having been lifted from Pegasus' shoulders. And now it was placed on Ishizu. The gods inside the cards felt angry. And they would lash out sooner or later, if they were not placed in proper resting places. She knew just the place.

* * *

One week and one trip to Thebes later and the gods were at rest in the Valley of the Kings. They would not be found; less than 10 people knew the places they were buried in and they were completely loyal to Ishizu. The cards were safe.

Ishizu called Pegasus and arranged him to come see her at her office. When he walked through the door, she was hit by another vision.

 _There is blood on his face, his body is slumped against a wall, above it a painting of a blonde woman in blue dress. The blood drips, drips from an empty eye socket. His hand, on the floor, twitches once and twice, as if trying to reach for something, but the movement stops, and the body sags, finally tumbling over to the side. One empty eye socket, and one eye open, staring at the opposite wall yet seeing nothing. The blood fills this eye too, blurring out the vision._

"Is everything okay?" This was Pegasus' voice, and it pulled Ishizu back, grounded her.

"Yes, I just..." Ishizu paused. _I saw your death,_ she thought, and she knew Pegasus could pick it up from her mind with the Eye. But his reaction was merely a slightly raised curious eyebrow and nothing more. He helped her to sit down and poured some tea for her, not saying a word of the vision that so intimately concerned him.

Slowly she regained herself too. She saw things all the time, violent things, things even more horrific than a single dead man. This was not the first time she had seen death that lurked ahead. But it had never been someone she had known.

"I assume that the cards are hidden?" Pegasus asked.

"Yes," Ishizu answered.

"I am grateful," Pegasus said. He didn't bring up either the cards or Ishizu's vision. Instead they talked of common friends, and new tombs that had been found, with which Ishizu's department's work had been very crucial. Pegasus left the next day, saying that while vacation had been nice, he would need to get back to work, and he wouldn't want Ishizu to put off important work for him either.

She saw him off at the airport, wondering if this was the last time she would see him.

* * *

Other times came, several in fact. Pegasus came to Egypt multiple times to see old friends, and see if anything new and interesting was found buried under the desert sands. He often asked for Ishizu, because they could truly share the burden of their Items.

They talked a lot of their respective works; Pegasus' as the CEO of Indrustial Illusions and Ishizu's as the Secretary General. Pegasus taught her how to play Duel Monsters, helping her to put together a deck. Their duels were interesting because Pegasus could read her mind, and Ishizu could, she learned, predict the cards Pegasus was going to use. Both of them absolutely delighted in trying to outsmart the other and their powers.

Often they had long conversations of things past. Of Ancient Egypt. Pegasus' interest laid in the afterlife, he could listen to Ishizu talk about it for hours. Ishizu could not fault his curiosity concerning death, as it lurked just out of sight.

Slowly in between card games and talks of history, they learned of each other. Ishizu heard about Cynthia, the woman who had died, Pegasus' love, from Pegasus himself. And Ishizu talked of her family, though no doubt Pegasus had picked some hints from her mind, especially when Marik was at the top of her list of concerns. She didn't tell all, just enough to satisfy Pegasus' curiosity. And there was no doubt Pegasus was keeping something from her as well, their time was mostly shared on other matters. The times when either of their personal lives were brought up were rare indeed.

It was one such time, when it was clear Marik had tried to break into the very Council building that Ishizu worked in, and Ishizu had shared her worry with a friend, that Pegasus made an observation:

"It seems that the people Millennium Items choose as their carriers do not lead the happiest of lives."

"The people who the Millennium Items do not choose do not lead very long lives," Ishizu answered, making Pegasus chuckle. "Certainly. They are artefacts of great magic and darkness, and are drawn to death. Perhaps the Eye chose you because of the loss you had suffered."

"Perhaps I suffered a loss, because the Eye had chosen me," Pegasus said. "The Millennium Items seem to have it all very well planned out, to get me to come to Egypt and unearth the relics of the nameless Pharaoh."

"I can't say," Ishizu said.

"Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't come upon the Eye. Of course I often wonder what life would have been like, if Cynthia had lived, but sometimes I wonder that what if she was gone but I never came upon the Eye. Would I have found the tablets at all, or was that destined by the Eye? Would I have made the Duel Monsters? The more I look, the more it all seems destined, everything around me."

"The magic does strange things," Ishizu answered with a shrug. "It is not ours to tell what is destined and what is not."

"Perhaps. Perhaps Cynthia's death was just a coincidence, but it set me upon a path. You cannot escape a destiny, at least not one that seems to so engulfing, so powerful like this one," Pegasus said. "But that doesn't mean it cannot be made a little enjoyable. Duel Monsters have been important to many. It gladdens me. Makes it worthwhile. Have you ever thought about what your life would be like without your necklace?"

Ishizu merely shook her head.

"I've never known a life without it," she said. "I have no starting point for such thoughts. I've always been on a path that the Items have set out, because of what my family is. The Necklace has not revealed my exact purpose yet, though it is sure to come"

"Hmm, that's right," Pegasus said. "Well, someday both of our parts will be played, and then perhaps you can enjoy some freedom."

He didn't mention what he would be doing once their parts had been played. Both of them knew what it would be. She had seen it.

He must have picked up her displeasure of alluding to his death, because with ease he changed subject, pulling Ishizu into an argument about Egyptian history by talking about some latest discovery he had heard, completely false of course. He knew just where to push, to make her completely forget that he indeed did know better, and merely wished to tease her into an emotional response, because she couldn't let the misinformation stand. He always succeeded. She was glad he did.

She was too busy to see him off to the airport, when he left. It didn't matter, he told he had big plans, and would contact her soon enough.

* * *

Pegasus was holding a Duel Monsters tournament. She received an email from him, telling how exciting it all would be, and how he had huge hopes for it. That was the last thing she heard.

The people in the office told her the news of his passing. That the tournament had ended in a sombre note, of the passing of the creator of the Duel Monsters. There was a mystery surrounding the death, and no official statement had been released, except that he was indeed gone. The Council of Antiquities were in mourning, Pegasus had been a big financier of their projects, and a great friend to many.

Ishizu took the news outwardly calmly, like she wasn't surprised about the news at all. She did bury herself in her work more than usual, barely leaving the office. But two of the God Cards had been stolen, and this was a personal failure in part of the Secretary General, so there was much work to do.

Two letters arrived four days after the news. One was directed to the whole department, explaining how much of Pegasus' estate had beenleft to the Council to use in future projects. The other letter was addressed to Miss Ishizu Ishtar, and to her alone.

She took it and locked herself in her office to read it.

She knew who had sent it; the words upon the paper were written with a familiar curly handwriting. The letter was a single paper, not signed, but there was a small sketch of a cartoon bunny holding a bouquet of roses and grinning wide at the bottom of the letter, that caught her eye immediately. Of course he would write. He had, after all, known he would die at some point.

 _Dear Ishizu,_ it said,

 _if you read this I have passed. That was always something that I knew would happen, and only because of you I knew that it would happen sooner rather than later. I've tried my best to avoid the fate you saw for me, but since you're reading this, it means that I've failed. If the Millennium Items have taught me anything it's that sometimes there is no escaping what was meant to be. It is more important to use the time given to us. Perhaps I will see my dearest Cynthia again. I could not bring her to me, so I must go to her._

 _You have been a good friend to me these past years. And the thought of not seeing you again has been most upsetting for me, when thinking about when the time to send this letter would come. I was lost the moment Cynthia was taken from me, but the Millennium Eye gave me another path to walk upon. It is different for you, and I sincerely wish that once the Necklace is done with you, you get to live the life you never had._

 _You were made for so much more than just being the servant of the Millennium Items._

She sat in her office for a long time, the letter laid out in front of her on the desk. She stared at it until the letters blurred, words slipped together into a thick mess.

 _Cynthia is waiting. She does not seem impatient, just content. Her hair has grown, it is flowing down her back, almost touching the floor. She turns when she hears the sound of footfall, and a smile spreads on her face, her eyes light up as she runs into Pegasus' arms._

She didn't know if it was a vision, or mere fancy, but she picked out the letter, put it in the top drawer and continued working.

Next week, in the paper, she saw a picture of the newly appointed King of Games, the one who beat Pegasus at Duelist Kingdom. Against the boy's chest laid a down-turned pyramid with an eye in the middle, staring out of the picture. Ishizu could feel her Necklace pulling towards it. She would have to go Japan.

Her destiny was finally starting to unravel.

* * *

 _A/N: I would have liked to do the same story but from Pegasus' POV. I think it would have added quite a bit to this, but that would have pushed this into 10k, and I didn't have time for that, so this'll have to do, and that other part will be a sequel I'll hopefully write. :P_


End file.
